Velociraptor (movie canon)
Films Identity The Velociraptor in the films appear to be dromaeosaurids that resembled Deinonychus and were 6 ft tall with their signature sickle claws being 6 inches. They had a resonation chamber located in their skull. According to Dr. Alan Grant, they were highly intelligent, being smarter than whales and even primates, which would make the film's Velociraptor the most intelligent dinosaur that would have existed as the intelligence of Troodon, the world's smartest dinosaur in real life, is comparable to the modern day opossum. So far, multiple specimens have been found in the state of Montana in North America. Dr. Grant theorized that a raptor pack would trap their prey. If potential prey saw a member of the pack it would freeze in place with the raptor would just looking back at them, as if in a standoff. Then the attack would come, not from the front, but from the flanks by other members of the pack. Though it is popularly assumed that the film's Velociraptor is a reclassified Deinonychus (and out of universe the raptors were to be and were based on this dinosaur), the Holoscape attraction of the Jurassic World Innovation Center suggests otherwise with Velociraptor and Deinonychus are listed as entirely separate dinosaurs. Furthermore, when a little girl selected the Velociraptor hologram of the Holoscape, she selected the Velociraptor icon rather than the icon for Deinonychus. A dinosaur that in real-life resembles the film Velociraptor would be , a large raptor comparable in size that was said to have a skull similar to Deinonychus. Clones Among all the variations of the clones were pronated forelimbs which theropods lacked in real life. In nearly all of the variations, both sexes were featherless and were fully scaled, unlike actual dromaeosaurids. The Masrani backdoor explains that this due to a created from the mutation and manipulation of dinosaur genes as well as the addition of frog, reptile, and bird DNA that causes feathered dinosaurs to have scaled skin. This remained unnoticed by InGen until 2003 simply because at the time these clones were created there was no evidence yet for feathered dromaeosaurids.RUFFLED FEATHERS However, males of a crested variation seen wild on Isla Sorna had quills on the top of their heads. First Variation This variant that is first one seen on-screen was closest to the fossils of Velociraptor that were found in Montana. They were sexually dimorphic, females were a brown color with green eyes while the males had a coloration similar to that of a tiger with yellow eyes. When they are born, they imprint on the first creature they come in contact with, even if this creature is not of their own species, and would be loyal to this individual.“They raptors imprint on the first creature they come in contact with. ... Helps them to trust me.” - John Hammond, According to Jurassic Park game warden Robert Muldoon, the raptors were "lethal" at eight months of age.“They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal.” - Robert Muldoon, Muldoon also claimed that the raptors were able to reach speeds of 50-60 MPH in the open and were “astonishing jumpers”.“Fifty, sixty miles per hour, if they ever got out in the open. And they're astonishing jumpers.”- Robert Muldoon, In terms of behavior, these raptors did not vocalization as much as the other variants when hunting with the only instance of this behavior when a female individual called for her subordinate when hunting Tim and Lex Murphy. When hunting, they relied primarily on stealth, which might explain the limited vocalizations. The trapping method that Dr. Grant theorized for the non-clones were also once employed by the clones that lived in Jurassic Park. Like with wolves, this variant would sometimes display aggressive behavior towards packmates, usually for or to remain in control of the pack. The Big One notably displayed aggressive behavior throughout her life, most notably when she killed nearly all the raptors being kept in the Velociraptor Paddock except for two.“We bred eight originally, but when she came in, she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others.”- Robert Muldoon, Second Variation These raptors were much more birdlike in behavior and appearance. Their skulls were longer(July 18, 2001) Dino Might. Entertainment Weekly. and had crests located on the of their skull, traits which are absent in the first variant and the fossils seen in the film. Furthermore, no known dromaeosaurid in real life as been found with crests. Like with the previous variation, sexual dimorphism was present. Males were a grayish blue color with light blue horizontal striping from the start of the neck to the end of the tail. Their eyes were red and small with a blue ring around the socket. Males also possessed quills on the top of their heads as well as having red crests. The females were a beige color and had yellow eyes. Both sexes had round pupils. It is never explained in Jurassic Park III as to why the raptors that appeared in the film looked so different from the packs seen in the first two films. The closest official explanation for these differences comes from John Rosengrant who worked on the practical effects of the first four films. Rosengrant implies in Cinefex#87 that the raptors had biologically evolved since their appearance in .“We decided to go at it with the idea that these things Raptors have evolved a little bit since the last movie.” - John Rosengrant, Cinefex#87“Since, in this movie, the raptors have evolved and are more intelligent...” - John Rosengrant, Cinefex#87 Though this does provide somewhat of an official explanation, it is unclear if it is indeed the case for the film itself. IBRIS Project Variantations Story Creation Many details about the origin of the Velociraptor clones are not given in the films themselves, but rather the viral website masraniglobal.com and its backdoor. Velociraptor, like all of the dinosaurs, was created by InGen scientists inside a compound on Isla Sorna. First cloned in 1986, it was the first dinosaur that InGen had successfully cloned. In 1991, InGen scientists created Subjects 4X, 6X, and 7X that were clones with added to their genomes, but while they were still s succumbed to believed to have been caused by the dart frog DNA being incompatible with the cloned raptor genome. After being suggested by Dr. Henry Wu,Masrani backdoor: "KARYOLYSIS" the was used instead and was eventually used in all of the dinosaur and pterosaur clones from that point on, which caused said animals to have the ability to change sex, thus being able to breed.InGen Profile. (2014, November). Retrieved from http://www.masraniglobal.com/about/divisions/ingen/index.html In 1992, Dr. Wu studied the raptors and discovered their great intelligence and their language.Masrani backdoor: "COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE" Eight raptors were originally bred for InGen's Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar. The pack lived in the self-titled Veloicraptor Paddock. Eventually, a raptor that Jurassic Park Game Warden Robert Muldoon called "The Big One" was created and sent to live with the pack. The Big One soon took over the pack, killing all but two of park's pack, which lead to InGen having to relocate them to another enclosure. Velociraptor Incident During the transportation of one of the remaining three raptors, the caged Velociraptor charged its cage just as a Jurassic Park Security member Jophery Brown was raising the gate to the Raptor Pen. As Jophery was on the ground, the Velociraptor began pulling him towards her and despite Muldoon's attempt to save him, Jophery was killed by the raptor. Angered, Muldoon commanded the security with him to shoot the raptor. Even though gunshots are heard, the raptor was not euthanized, leaving one to speculate what might have allowed the raptor's survival. Tour of Jurassic Park After watching a video about how the dinosaurs are cloned, the Jurassic Park Endorsement Team were immediately taken to the Isla Nublar Laboratory where they and John Hammond witnessed the birth of a Velociraptor. Behind the scenes ''Jurassic Park'' Design Markraptor3.png|Concept art by Mark Hallett. Markraptor2.png|Ditto. Raptormark1.png|Ditto. The film crew contacted paleontologist and requested all copies of his technical papers of Deinonychus.Cummings, Mike. (June 18, 2015) "Yale’s legacy in ‘Jurassic World’". Yale News. The film's Velociraptor was to even be called Deinonychus at one point in the film's development. In 1990, Paleoartist Mark Hallett created a storyboard of the raptors in the kitchen and color studies of the raptors. These drawings featured a different head design than that of the film. . First drawn in 1991, this would serve as a design for the first film's Velociraptor.]] Mark "Crash" McCreery designed the Velociraptor for the film. He created concepts of three life stages of the raptor: hatchling, juvenile, and adult, the juvenile which was never seen in the film, but was originally going to be included.The Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, pp. 101-103 Two of his drawings were created in 1991icollector.com - Mark “Crash” McCreary conceptual artwork for Deinonychus from Jurassic ParkORIGINAL CONCEPT ARTWORK OF BABY RAPTORS FROM JURASSIC PARK. icollector.com. and like with Hallet's drawings, a trait in many of McCreery's concepts was a different head design from that of the Velociraptor on screen. The concepts primarily featured a skull like Deinonychus, whereas the final design that was seen on-screen as a different skull shape than the concept art. Some design choices were suggested and/or considered of the Velociraptor in the film, but were never used. Phil Tippit once created a animatic of the raptors in the kitchen that featured one of the raptors having a forked tongue that it flicked out of its mouth like that of snake or as an allusion to the cross-referencing with genetic engineering used to created the dinosaurs. This idea was scrapped as paleontological consultant Jack Horner disagreed with it saying "No, can’t do that, that’s a lizard, dinosaurs aren’t lizards they’re birds."(February 5, 2014) Interview with Phil Tippit. Jurassic Outpost. Footage of this animatic can be seen in the documentary The Making of Jurassic Park. After the switch from go motion to CGI, Gregory S. Paul, paleoartist and researcher who did preliminary studies on the Velociraptor for the film,Autobiography, Part IV gspauldino.com. suggested that they be feathered, though this could be not done due to the limitations of computer animation at the time.Curley, Vine JJ. (December 2005/January 2006) The Prehistoric Times Interview: Gregory S. Paul. Prehistoric Times Magazine, 75, p. 43. Retrieved from http://gspauldino.com/PTinterview2006.pdf The color scheme of the raptors changed throughout its development. Mark Hallett did color studies of the raptors featuring them with vibrant colors. Each of these colorations was as follows: bright red with black striping, yellow and brown with orange highlights, and olive green and blue. All of these, however, were discarded. One early proposed coloration was an orange with black stripes, like a tiger. This coloration is showcased in Craig Mullins' concept art of the final scene.The Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, p. 41 Practical Effects Body suits Early in the film's development, Speilberg once entertained the idea of outfitting some of the chickens he owned with prosthetic heads, arms, and tails then letting them go berzerk on scaled down stage sets to portray the raptors until the computer animation was perfected, but he was later convinced by those close to him to discard this idea.Hallet, Mark. (Spring 2013) "Sketch me a Spitter! An Artist Remembers Jurassic Park". Prehistoric Times Magazine, 105, p. 49 The idea for a body suit came independently from Stan Winston Studio when they were observing early storyboards. There was originally going to only be one full body suit to be made for the filmDuncan, Jody. (1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 87. though this soon became two suits by the time filming began. Each suit required the puppeteer to get into a skiing stance when entering and then zipped inside the suit using a zipper located in the back. To allow the puppeteer to see inside the suit, there were several small slits located in the neck where the person's head would be as well as a small TV monitor that was also fixed inside the body suit. Furthermore, due to the design of the suit being air-tight, an airline had to be fed up one of its' legs. Despite the original plan to design the suits without cable controlled mechanisms, instead using servos and radio-control, but cables were added to streamline the suit.Duncan, Jody. (1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 88. The final suit featured radio-controlled eyes and the arms was half radio-controlled and half-cable controlled,The Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, pp. 32-33 the cables for the arms running down one of the legs of the suit. Furthermore, the tail was also mechanized and the wearer was able to move the head by two rods located inside the neck. John Rosengrant and Mark McCreery were selected to perform in the Velociraptor suits. Stan Winston hired a trainer to give two men back exercises due to the position that they would be in during filming. Both suits saw usage in the famous Kitchen Scene, particularly when the first raptor to enter the kitchen calls for her subordinate.Duncan, Jody. (1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 91-92. Rosengrant also used a raptor suit in the scene where Muldoon is killed.The Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, p. 113 Insert Head The insert head was used for close up shots of the raptors.The Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, p. 35 It was used in every scene that featured the sickle-clawed predators. This insert head, along with two other puppets, was designed and built by Craig Craton, who had been interested in creating a puppet utilizing a Steadycam design after watching Steadicam operators during the filming of . The head and the aforementioned puppets utilized a modified version of the neck mechanism of the Dilophosaurus animatronic.Duncan, Jody. (1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 87-88. Originally the insert head was going to use a different method until it was changed to an offshoot of the Dilophosaurus neck design. Unlike the Dilo's head, the Velociraptor head borrowing more from Steadicam technology. Using a standard backpack rather than one using for Steadicams, at the base of the head was a handle that when grabbing it in a certain direction would allow the head to move in that direction. Its tongue, eyes, and lips were radio controlled and its mouth was cable controlled. Christopher Swift and Mark McCreery operated these parts of the head respectively. Misc Ending Change In the original endings for Jurassic Park, one raptor was to be crushed by one of the falling skeletons while the other would either be moved and crushed to the jaws of the T. rex skeleton by Dr. Grant using a crane or by Hammond shooting the raptor.Return to Jurassic Park: Making PrehistoryThe Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, p. 118.''Sharpio, Mark. (1993, August) In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs. ''Fangoria, 27. Retrieved from http://www.jurassicworlduniverse.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/199308-fangoria-125.pdf These endings were scrapped from the film because Spielberg believed the T. rex to be the star of the film alongside the smaller Velociraptor. CGI Sound ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' Indroduction of the Males Portrayal ''Jurassic Park III'' Redesign Portrayal Sound ''Jurassic World'' Notes and references